back to article The top five spam subjects sullying inboxes

Security biz Websense has drawn up a list of the five most common spam subject lines. The nuisance list, based on the subject lines of the millions of spam messages blocked by the firm every day, highlights the danger of opening attachments or clicking dodgy links. The most commonly seen subject lines fall into the one of the …

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  1. ■↨

    V1A612A

    Well, I don't get any of those. Just because they're the 'most common', it doesn't mean that they're actually common, does it?

    1. jonathanb Silver badge

      The "most common" spams are probably the ones that are most likely to be caught by spam filters, and given that it is a spam filtering outfit that prepared the stats, it is probably the ones most often caught by them. If you actually use them to filter your spam, it is probably the spam you are least likely to receive.

    2. Anteaus
      Thumb Up

      Mailto: missing?

      Maybe because you're one of the sensible people who don't put harvestable links on websites. That's definitely in the top five reasons for being hammered with spam.

    3. BrownishMonstr
      Thumb Up

      'cause you just had to have that as your title.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What? No!

    No mention of "get a bigger to tool!" in the first five?

    My mail box is full of that stuff.

    1. Neil 51
      Joke

      Well....

      ...just tell your girlfriend to stop forwarding it to you.

  3. Shane8
    Joke

    What about....

    what about my viagra...where on earth can i find it that cheap?!?!

    1. Simon Harris
      Joke

      Shane, send me your email and I will forward you all the cheap offers from my spambox.

  4. Tim of the Win

    My favourite is "COCKZILLA IS THE WORD" always makes me think of Surfin' Bird.

  5. Z-Eden
    Coat

    Not even a single entry about untold billions worth of loot that just need your help in securing the monies? I'm surprised the recent upheavals in Egypt and Libya haven't results in Gaddafi's second cousin thrice removed contacting us personally to ask us to help move his ill gotten gains.

    Disappointed

  6. kain preacher

    I get the refund processor.

    This on cracked me up. You one the Scottish lottery for $50,000 USD .When did they start using USD in Scotland. Of course it's a phone number based in Spain attacked with a French physical address. guess that EU zone is really working out.

    I also get your Canadabell is about to be suspended.

    1. Tim of the Win
      Thumb Up

      On the subject of lotteries

      I also love the one "you won the postcode lottery". I think they misunderstand what that phrase means.

      1. TwistUrCapBack
        Thumb Down

        yeah, either that or you havent heard of the actual postcode lottery, that exists , and is winnable ..

      2. This post has been deleted by its author

  7. Phil Endecott

    Your bank account has been suspended

    Please log on to re-enable: <link>

    What annoys me more, though, is spam from real companies who have "forgotten" that I opted out.

  8. Arctic fox
    Flame

    Sometimes such spam/phishing cons are sufficently clever that........

    ...........it is to some extent understandable that people get caught. However, a very large amount of the time it is in fact very difficult to understand how in hell these scams work. No, I am not having a pop at "the great unwashed" or "chavs" or any other insulting characterisation of "others" for being (naturally) far less intelligent than yours truly. That is not my point at all. I genuinely do not understand how it is possible (sometimes) that these work. To give an example of what I mean. I work at a university, allegedly containing some of the most intelligent and well educated people in society. Recently a large number of employees received an e-mail purporting to come from Amazon and it has to be said it was pretty good - the resemblance to Amazon's advertising e-mails was very well done. There were however two things with that e-mail. Number one, it asked you to click on a link to go and make changes to your account at Amazon. Number two, many of those who received it were indeed Amazon customers but had *never* ordered anything from that company via their uni account and should of course realised that Amazon did not have that e-mail address. These two issues should naturally have ensured that virtually nobody in this "grove of academy" this repository of education and intelligence did anything so fucking stupid. Wrong! The number of individuals whose uni e-mail address was (as they should perfectly well have remembered/realised) was totally unknown to Amazon who not only believed that the e-mail was genuine but clicked on that link and provided account details was embarrassingly large and created some serious security problems. We are not talking about (alleged) "hoi polloi" we are talking about people who (allegedly) belong to the top twenty percent or so with regard to IQ.

    WTF!

    1. Cliff

      clever at 1 thing != clever at all things

      That's why doctors, lawyers get caught out all the time.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What is the point of telling me...

    ...What's in my junk folder?

    I can look.

    Specious.

  10. Rafael 1

    Your webmail account is full

    I get at least two of those every day, asking me to write down my user name, password, other non-related information; either via a Google docs form or replying to a *consultant.com e-mail.

  11. Wile E. Veteran
    FAIL

    Fake package mail

    Got one recently telling me FedEx was unable to deliver a package. Was allegedly sent by **UPS** tracking service. As Bugs Bunny used to say, "What a maroon!"

  12. jake Silver badge

    Here, the top five (this week) are:

    1) Get your PhD online!

    2) Drugs

    3) Bras, of all kinds and colors![1]

    4) Dansco[2]

    5) Cruises

    Variations on refinancing your home is right behind number 5.

    [1] I kid you not ... the mind boggles.

    [2] Whatever the hell that is.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Buy Custom Made University Diplomas...

    ...Fake College Degrees and Transcripts of World Famous Universities

    I always get this for some reason. Thank goodness I'm finally through with university, there was a time when I would have actually felt tempted. ;)

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    You mean the IRS....

    ......isn't after British tax payers?

    Damn -so who did I give my money to?

  15. Tom Maddox Silver badge
    Trollface

    I blame Microsoft

    No particular reason--it just seems the thing to do.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    World of Warcraft

    World of Warcraft scams and spam aren't limited to email. They sometimes try to point you to a bogus site from within the game itself these spammers. They make a character called "BlizzGM" or something and point you to a bogus site....

  17. McBread

    PAT

    For some reason, I've started to get regular spam for PATesting. What kind of idiot would take up that offer?

    "Hello, is that No Scruples Ltd? Yes, I'd like to invite you in to my place of business, and leave you alone for the afternoon with my computer equipment."

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